COMMUNITY GROUP GUIDE
LEARNING TO LIVE FREE
A Journey Through Exodus
Each week, our Community Groups take the Sunday teaching into the rest of the week. We gather around a table, open Scripture, share our lives, practice the way of Jesus, and make space for the Holy Spirit together.
These guides are designed to help you do that. Use this with your Community Group, with a few friends, or on your own.
THIS WEEK: “THE WAY OUT” // Who can actually set me free?
Exodus 12:1–13
Big Idea:
You can leave Egypt and still live like Egypt owns you.
God does not only bring His people out of slavery. He begins teaching them how free people live. In Exodus 12, God starts reshaping three things: their time, their story, and the source of their life.
GATHER
Take some time to settle in, catch up, and make room for everyone to be present.
Opening question:
Where in your life do you find it hardest to actually slow down and be present?
Or, for something lighter:
What is one thing that helps you genuinely relax?
As people share, listen for the tension between being technically “free” and still feeling driven, hurried, anxious, or controlled.
SCRIPTURE
Read or summarize Exodus 12:1–13 together.
Before discussing the details, ask:
What stands out to you in this passage?
What do you notice God asking Israel to do before they even leave Egypt?
The surprising thing in Exodus 12 is that God begins forming Israel for freedom before Pharaoh is completely behind them.
He changes:
Their time
Their story
The source of their life
1. LET GOD REORDER YOUR LIFE
Read again:
“This month shall be for you the beginning of months.”
Exodus 12:2
Before God changes Israel's location, He changes their calendar.
Pharaoh had organized their days around bricks, quotas, production, and someone else's demands.
God begins teaching them:
You belong to Me now, so your life can be organized differently.
Conversation
What tends to control your time right now?
Where do you feel the most hurried or pressured?
In the sermon we asked:
What has become Pharaoh over my calendar?
Sometimes it is work, ambition, our phones, other people's expectations, or even ourselves.
Where do you see that in your own life?
Why do you think it can be so difficult for us to leave empty space in our lives?
How does the idea that “I am more than what I produce” challenge the way you normally live?
Go a little deeper
What might it look like for your calendar to communicate that you actually trust God?
Where might Jesus be inviting you to stop striving rather than simply become more productive?
2. REMEMBER THE STORY THAT MAKES YOU FREE
Look at Exodus 12:7–11.
God gives Israel a meal and a story they will repeat for generations.
Why?
Because people forget.
Israel will physically leave Egypt quickly, but Egypt will take much longer to leave Israel.
When they forget what God has done, they will eventually begin romanticizing the very thing that enslaved them.
So God tells them:
Remember. Tell the story again.
Conversation
Why do you think remembering is such an important spiritual practice?
Have you ever gone through a season where you began forgetting what God had done in your life?
What happens to us spiritually when we stop remembering?
The sermon put it this way:
Remembrance takes redemption from information and turns it into identity.
What is one part of God's story in your life that you need to remember right now?
Maybe:
a way God rescued you
a prayer He answered
a season He carried you through
a person He used in your life
the moment the gospel became real to you
Take a few minutes and let people tell some of those stories.
3. LEARN TO LIVE UNDER THE LAMB
Look at Exodus 12:12–13.
Israel's rescue ultimately does not depend on their ability to become better people.
At the center of the story is a lamb.
The lamb dies so the household lives.
And the Exodus story ultimately points us toward Jesus.
Jesus does not simply tell us how to become free.
He becomes the source of our freedom.
Conversation
Why is it so easy to turn Christianity into another form of trying harder?
What are some things we tend to trust to “cover” our lives?
For example:
morality
achievement
money
reputation
family
spirituality
our ability to keep everything together
Where are you most tempted to rely on yourself instead of receiving what Jesus has already done?
What would it mean for the gospel to become good news to you again this week?
PRACTICE
Choose one of these practices for the coming week.
1. LEAVE ROOM
Choose one hour you intentionally refuse to fill.
No work.
No scrolling.
No productivity project.
Take a walk. Sit outside. Make coffee. Pray. Be with someone you love.
Ask:
What has become Pharaoh over my time?
2. REMEMBER AROUND THE TABLE
Have one intentional meal this week.
Slow down.
Give thanks.
Tell someone a story of what God has done in your life.
If you have children, let them hear the story too.
3. RETURN TO THE GOSPEL
Take five quiet minutes sometime this week and pray:
Jesus, remind me what You have rescued me from and what You have rescued me for.
Do not try to accomplish anything.
Receive again what Jesus has already done.
PRAYER
Before praying, go around the group and have each person answer:
Where do you most want to experience greater freedom right now?
Then pray for one another.
You might finish together with this simple prayer:
Jesus, thank You that You do not only bring us out of Egypt. You teach us how to live free.
Reorder our lives.
Remind us of our story.
Teach us to rest under what You have done for us.
Where we have become hurried, teach us to leave room.
Where we have forgotten, help us remember.
Where we are striving, bring us back under the Lamb.
Remind us what You have rescued us from and what You have rescued us for.
Amen.
TAKE THIS WITH YOU
Freedom is not something you achieve.
Freedom is something you receive from the One who gave His life for you.